oddball (thing)

The 1,200 ton Bucyrus-Erie 1150-B dragline known as "Oddball" was built in 1948, to be used in the coal mine stripping operations in West Virgina U.S.A. It was transported in the mid 50's to the UK and used in the coal industry in South Wales. It is an amazing piece of machinery -- it took an entire fleet of trucks to move Oddball to Commock, Stafforshire to resume it's work as a dragline in the mining industry there. Its final operation was for Miller Mining in Yorshire. While Oddball may be referred to as a walking dragline its top speed was .04kph, not typical for a walking dragline. To put this puppy in perspective -- Oddball is the size of 60 double deck busses.

While the "Big Muskie" is the largest dragline built to date (weight 27 million lbs), Oddball is the only dragline of it's class to have been perserved. At its final resting place (open to the public) at an opencast mine site just outside Leeds, Yorkshire, Oddball quietly lowered it’s boom unaided.